Nature

Humans and canines have been best pals for at least the past 15,000 years. We’ve been taking them for walkies for at least half that time. And now we have a better idea of what’s going on inside their cute, fuzzy little skulls. A new study on the genetic activity of fox pituitary glands

The war goes on. In a series of deadly raids day and night, the African Matabele ant sets out from its bunkered nests to hunt its prey: phalanxes of termite soldiers, assembled in number at feeding sites. Many ants don’t make it back alive. Others that do carry terrible injuries, with limbs torn off

Most of us won’t ever get to see a baby octopus hatching in the wild, but luckily Virginia Aquarium managed to film it happening in captivity, and have share it online for everyone to enjoy. In a remarkable 10-second video posted to Facebook and Twitter, a single tiny Caribbean reef octopus (Octopus briareus) is

The hunter has officially become the hunted. Last week, the body of a suspected poacher was found mauled by a pride of lions in South Africa. By the time authorities recovered the body of the 46-year-old male, most of the remains had been eaten by the pride, making identification difficult. A loaded hunting rifle found

Imagine stepping into the night and seeing beams of light that shoot from the earth straight into the atmosphere. You might suspect alien spaceships, but light pillars are of this world. When a blast of cold weather comes down from the Arctic, flat ice crystals form in the air and hang there like pixie

When an asteroid hit Earth some 66 million years ago, it triggered devastation around the world. There were at least three nearly simultaneous events involved in the global catastrophe that ended what we now call the Mesozoic era. An asteroid between 10 and 15 kilometres in diameter slammed into Earth, creating the Chicxulub Crater

Many vertebrate animals, including us humans, have two eyes that are able to perceive three-dimensional structures. But a new study has discovered that praying mantises have an altogether unique ability to see in 3D. This so-called 3D vision – also known as stereopsis – is how creatures with binocular vision produce depth perception when

Some of the very first sea creatures to be able to walk didn’t make the most of their new evolutionary advantage and stayed in the oceans, according to new research, which suggests the ability to walk originated much earlier than previously thought. The research is based on a genetic analysis of the brain cells

A new study on the genes of the famously indestructible cockroach shows they last had a common ancestor sometime during the Triassic Period, adding weight to the hypothesis that they embarked on their global domination with the breaking up of a supercontinent. If it’s one thing that unites humanity, it’s our disgust at all things

If there are viruses on the ground and viruses in the water, one might expect there are viruses in the sky as well. And boy howdy are there ever. Scientists have just found that hundreds of millions of viruses per day are deposited above the lowest layer of the atmosphere. This could explain a

Cretaceous amber has ponied up another spectacular find, and something rarely seen before: tiny arachnids, with mobile tails longer than their bodies. The creatures were encased in tree resin roughly 100 million years ago, during the mid-Cretaceous, and the discovery shows that the extraordinary family of arachnids could have roamed our planet for at least 280

Cretaceous amber has ponied up another spectacular find, and something rarely seen before: tiny arachnids, with mobile tails longer than their bodies. The creatures were encased in tree resin roughly 100 million years ago, during the mid-Cretaceous, and the discovery shows that the extraordinary family of arachnids could have roamed our planet for at least 280

No other life form on our planet has infiltrated every environment as successfully as the minuscule single cells of bacteria. Amongst their many roles in life on Earth, it turns out some of these microbes are also experts at purifying precious metals. An international team of researchers has figured out how one metal-gobbling bacterium,

Nigel, a handsome gannet bird who lived on a desolate island off the coast of New Zealand, died suddenly this week. Wherever his soul has landed, the singles scene surely cannot be worse. The bird was lured to Mana Island five years ago by wildlife officials who, in hopes of establishing a gannet colony

Nigel, a handsome gannet bird who lived on a desolate island off the coast of New Zealand, died suddenly this week. Wherever his soul has landed, the singles scene surely cannot be worse. The bird was lured to Mana Island five years ago by wildlife officials who, in hopes of establishing a gannet colony

If you’ve ever wondered why some dogs have floppy ears, you’re in pretty good company. After all, Charles Darwin was once curious about the very same thing. In fact, this week marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, in which the great scientist ruminated (at

If you’ve ever wondered why some dogs have floppy ears, you’re in pretty good company. After all, Charles Darwin was once curious about the very same thing. In fact, this week marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, in which the great scientist ruminated (at

It’s only the size of a sesame seed, but a newly discovered parasitoid wasp has enormous saw-like spines that could be used for a grisly purpose. Dendrocerus scutellaris could be looking for mates – or tearing its way out of a host’s body from the inside. We don’t actually know for sure, because the

It’s only the size of a sesame seed, but a newly discovered parasitoid wasp has enormous saw-like spines that could be used for a grisly purpose. Dendrocerus scutellaris could be looking for mates – or tearing its way out of a host’s body from the inside. We don’t actually know for sure, because the

Some 110 million years ago, in the swamp that would become the Washington suburbs, a hulking, armored nodosaur trudged along a riverbank, leaving a telltale print in the mud. Its offspring scrambled after it, slipping in the parent’s print. Other dinosaurs crowded the setting: A long-necked sauropod squelched through the muck, while several theropods –

Some 110 million years ago, in the swamp that would become the Washington suburbs, a hulking, armored nodosaur trudged along a riverbank, leaving a telltale print in the mud. Its offspring scrambled after it, slipping in the parent’s print. Other dinosaurs crowded the setting: A long-necked sauropod squelched through the muck, while several theropods –

Orange dwarf crocodiles living in the caves of central Africa could be evolving into a new and separate species, say scientists, giving us a fascinating look at animal adaptation happening before our very eyes. These creatures, discovered in Gabon in 2008, are already strange enough – living in the darkness, feeding off bats and

Orange dwarf crocodiles living in the caves of central Africa could be evolving into a new and separate species, say scientists, giving us a fascinating look at animal adaptation happening before our very eyes. These creatures, discovered in Gabon in 2008, are already strange enough – living in the darkness, feeding off bats and

California earthquakes are a geologic inevitability. The state straddles the North American and Pacific tectonic plates and is crisscrossed by the San Andreas and other active fault systems. The magnitude 7.9 earthquake that struck off Alaska’s Kodiak Island on 23 January 2018 was just the latest reminder of major seismic activity along the Pacific Rim.

A new study has added evidence to the hypothesis that our planet experienced a lull in geology between 2.2 and 2.3 billion years ago, when not a lot went on as far as rock-forming processes go. The relatively dormant phase in our planet’s history signals a significant change in tectonics, one that is fuelling

A captive orca named Wikie has become the first killer whale known to recognisably make sounds that are not part of her native repertoire – including human language words like “hello” and “bye bye”. An international team of researchers has just published a study demonstrating the talking abilities of 14-year-old Wikie, who lives at

It’s not hard to find worrying stories about the state of our planet’s wildlife, so it’s refreshing to hear news with a more positive spin: a wild wolf has been spotted in Belgium for the first time in over a century. Having been driven from much of western Europe through a combination of hunting,

Africa was once populated by huge, unique dinosaur species. But scientists know very little about what they were like, what happened to them, and how they’re related to the dinosaurs found across Asia. That’s why a spectacular new find in Egypt has palaeontologists buzzing. In Egypt’s Sahara Desert, an expedition with the Mansoura University

A newly discovered millipede has more colour combinations than any other millipede ever discovered – but its bright and striking colouring is a warning that attempting to dine on the arthropod may be biting off more than one can chew. The multi-legged creature is called Apheloria polychroma. The species is found on the forest floor

The world’s earliest known bird genus, Archaeopteryx, is only understood thanks to a small handful of fossils. A new find from Northern Bavaria is the oldest one yet, harking back 150 million years – and it may also shed some light on how the animal evolved. Fossils of the bird were first discovered in

When Jamie Peyton first examined the bears’ paws last month, she figured they might take six months to heal. Peyton, a veterinarian at the University of California at Davis, had treated cats and dogs with burns before, and she knew these were severe. The two female black bears in her care had survived the

They say there are plenty of fish in the sea, but to be perfectly honest with you, that’s not always entirely true. Take the red handfish (Thymichthys politus), for instance. This extremely rare fish – thought to be the world’s rarest, in fact – is so scarce that up until last week, scientists knew of

The ocean is crowded. As many as 10 million viruses can be found squirming in a single millilitre of its water, and it turns out they have friends we never even knew about. Scientists have discovered a previously unknown family of viruses that dominate the ocean and can’t be detected by standard lab tests. Researchers

A bite from a venomous centipede can cause swelling and excruciating pain. And for a mouse – even one 15 times larger than a centipede – the bite can be deadly. Most predators hunt smaller animals. Blue whales, the largest carnivores on earth, are an extreme example: Each day a whale swallows millions and millions

New research has confirmed that cats have a preference when it comes to using their left or right paw, just like us humans with our left- and right-handedness. There seems to be a gender link, too. According to the new study, female felines prefer using their right paw to reach for a tasty morsel of

Biologists have served up the answer to the ultimate question of life, the Universe, and everything. That answer, as you may know, is 42. And the question, in this case, is “how many million protein molecules are there in a single cell?” Given that cells are the basic structural units of all living organisms

Back when vertebrates were just emerging, the world was inhabited by some pretty peculiar creatures. We know of their existence from the impressions left behind in shale beds hundreds of millions of years old, once sediment at the bottom of a body of water. Now researchers have found a new species, a bristle-covered worm

Scientists have discovered the remains of a vast stretch of underwater lava flows off the coast of Australia, a submerged, hidden landscape not unlike the charred realm of Mordor depicted in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series – though in this case without any sign of a corrupted dark lord. Using advanced underwater imaging

Geologists tend to agree that, billions of years ago, the configuration of the continents was very different. How exactly they all fit together and when is a bit more of a puzzle, the pieces of which can be put together by studying rocks and fossils. Now researchers have found a series of rocks that

It’s not unusual for plants to stick, prick, or entangle their seeds into some hapless animal that steps too close in search of a meal or a place to rest. But one genus of tree found in the tropical waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans has taken this method of distributing its seeds a

All species have their own means of communicating, but chameleons, perhaps, are some of the strangest. They use their unusual ability to change the colour of their skin – and now researchers have discovered that maybe they use their skulls to communicate, too. A team of researchers led by David Prötzel, a PhD student

Some of the earliest domesticated turkeys were reared for their cultural and symbolic significance in ancient Mexico, new research reveals, long before they became associated with festive dinners and sandwich fillings. It turns out that the birds were being used for rituals, sacrifices, and even as stand-ins for deities for hundreds of years, prized

In this remote outpost in Siberia, the cold is no small affair. Eyelashes freeze, frostbite is a constant danger and cars are usually kept running even when not being used, lest their batteries die in temperatures that average -50 degrees Celsius (-58 degrees Fahrenheit) in the winter, according to news reports. This is Oymyakon,

When over 200,000 saiga antelopes dropped dead in Kazakhstan over the course of a few weeks in May 2015, scientists were baffled. In just three weeks, over 60 percent of the global population of the critically endangered animals had been wiped out. It’s not the first time this has happened. In May 1998, 270,000

In recent years, studies have shown that there is a correlation between the phase of the Moon and large earthquakes. Now a new study has come out stating that there’s actually no relationship between the two; and, for that matter, there’s also no link between earthquakes and the time of year. According to researcher

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that Australia is home to the world’s most toxic spider. It’s called the funnel-web, it’s aggressive, and its venom can kill an adult human in 15 minutes, a fact Australians get drilled into their skulls from a young age. And recently one man found the Aussie nightmare –

Something is poisoning groups of owls in the US, including endangered species, and scientists think illegal marijuana farms are to blame. More specifically, a rat poison used at these farms is thought to be responsible, passed on as owls feed on the rats contaminated by anticoagulant poisons. The rats get drawn to the aromatic marijuana

The discovery that dinosaurs were feathery, not leathery, means we’ve had to rethink how they might have looked – and now there’s evidence that at least one dinosaur could have been as brilliantly coloured as some of the most jewel-hued modern birds. Caihong juji, a name that means “rainbow with the big crest” in